Tourism

At The Dawn of Tourism in Florida: Abolitionists, Print Media, and Images of Early Vacationers

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At The Dawn of Tourism in Florida: Abolitionists, Print Media, and Images of Early Vacationers

John T. Foster Jr. makes a compelling argument that the birth of tourism in Florida did not begin with the railroad barons of the 1880s as is popularly believed, but with abolitionist writers of the Reconstruction era, following the C ivil War. Progressive Northerners were lured to the state with colorful descriptions of desirable weather and abundant natural beauty. It was with these forward-thinking writers that Modern Florida was born.

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John T. Foster Jr.
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Florida Frontiers “Marineland of Florida ”

More than three decades before SeaWorld opened in Orlando in 1973, Marineland of Florida was a major tourist attraction, hosting as many as 900,000 visitors annually.

Located between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach, Marineland started out as Marine Studios. Business partners W. Douglas Burden, Sherman Pratt, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, and Ilya Tolstoy (grandson of Leo Tolstoy) envisioned a venue for filming underwater sequences for movies, but quickly realized the potential of the facility as a tourist destination.

Florida Frontiers “Cypress Gardens”

Florida is known around the world as the home of major theme parks such as Disney World, Universal Orlando, Sea World, and Busch Gardens. There are smaller theme parks here as well, including Marineland, Weeki Wachee, Gatorland and Dinosaur World.

The state tourism agency Visit Florida estimates that 94.7 million tourists came to Florida in 2013, most of them visiting at least one theme park.

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